JAPAN
samurai, to whom allusion has already been made in a previous chapter. Originally the rōnin were retainers of feudal chiefs who, having lost their estates in the sequel of intrigues or combats, could no longer support a military establishment, and thus the samurai serving under them had no choice but to become soldiers of fortune, ready to enlist under any banner or engage in any enterprise. Their desperate condition often betrayed them into sanguinary outrages, and their readiness to transfer their allegiance from one feudal chief to another did violence to the principles of loyalty and fidelity forming the bases of the samurai's creed. The Taikō endeavoured to check this abuse by forbidding any samurai to enter a new service without the consent of his former chief, and the Tokugawa rulers sought to impose a similar veto. But no signal success attended these efforts. The rōnin continued to be a feature of feudal Japan, not necessarily as soldiers of fortune, but sometimes as men who, for a purpose of their own,—to avenge the death of a relative, or to travel through the provinces on fencing tours, or to promote some political aim,—found it inconvenient to be tied to the service of one master. It was by these men that all the political outrages of later Tokugawa days were perpetrated,—the assassinations of prominent officials, the cutting down of foreigners, the assaults upon legations, and the violent acts of opposition to the conclusion of commercial treaties.
50
